Standard television has not kept up with the modern electronic revolution as exemplified by the recent developments in the personal computer industry. Consequently, a standard television system does not produce as high a quality picture as one might expect given the recent advancements seen in other modern electronic systems.
Standard television systems may receive and display analog, rather than digital, video signals. A typical standard video signal is referred to as an "interlaced" video signal. This means that each frame of video data displayed on the standard system is divided into two fields. The first field may, for example, contain the odd lines of the video frame. The second field may contain the even lines of the same video frame. The two fields making up the single frame are received and displayed successively on the standard system and may appear to a viewer as a single frame. Dividing and displaying a video frame in this manner may decrease the quality of the output of a video system.
Additionally, a standard television system may include an analog display such as a cathode ray tube (hereinafter "CRT"). Because a CRT is an analog device that does not provide a linear response to an input signal, a "gamma curve" is introduced into a standard video signal to compensate for the non-linearity of the CRT. Standard video signals therefore are not directly compatible with a linear digital display.
Furthermore, a standard television system may not be operable to process a video signal prior to displaying the video signal. Similarly, a standard television system may not be programmable to operate on a number of different standard video signals. Finally, a standard television system may be limited to a small display area on the order of 640 by 480 pixels.